Gibraltar

Gibraltar is actually an overseas territory of the United Kingdom located just beyond the southernmost point of Spain (who knew??). The residents of Gibraltar are British citizens (and very proud of it), and English is the primary language spoken there. Ever wonder where the term "gibberish" comes from? It stems from a mixing of English and Spanish spoken in Gibraltar!

We took the bus in from Seville and stayed in the Spanish border town of La Linea de la Concepcion. From La Linea, you can just walk across the border to Gibraltar, where the highlight is, of course, the Rock of Gibraltar. We accepted the challenge of hiking up the rock (no lame cable car rides for us!), which took about 5 hours in total. The best part was seeing the many Barbary Macaque monkeys that live towards the top. These monkeys are found only in the mountains of Algeria and Morroco, as well as in Gibraltar. It was the first time either of us had seen a monkey in the wild and we got excited about each one we saw (as evidenced by the dozens of monkey pictures on our camera)! However, Jesse did his best to avoid coming too close to any of the monkeys, while directing me to get as close as possible for pictures.

Presenting the Rock of Gibraltar! (recognize the Prudential logo?):


The town of Gibralter in the foreground and La Linea is in the background. Gibralter's airport runway is in between and you have to walk across it (carefully!) after you cross the border:


About halfway up the rock:


Some of our favorite monkey pictures: